Going against my better judgement, I’ve confidently trampled off into the forest alone behind the wheel of my 1990 Nissan Pathfinder. Ski season was coming and I wanted to go pick up my season pass. I had the latest forest service map and I thought I had found a shortcut to the local ski resort. I unknowingly had it wrong from the first turn off of the highway. I thought I was in location A on the map when I was at location B in reality. After a few miles of driving on the wrong side of the mountain, I arrived at an impassible washout. As I was backing up to turn around, I drove a rear wheel right into a ditch. The differential was on the ground and the wheel was spinning in free air. I was stuck and unable to free myself. My only means of communication was my cell phone which I had to hike about a mile to use to call for help. By the time we recovered my vehicle, the ski resort was closed and I didn’t pick up my season pass that day. Luckily the consequences that day were mild to say the least. Things could have been much worse.
I was about 18 years old and I was unprepared for a situation like this. Little did I know that things had gone wrong far before I had realized. On the paper map, there was a campground symbol covering the intersecting road that i had turned on. I actually needed to turn on the next road a few hundred feet farther. If I had a GPS at the time, I would have quickly noticed my mistake. Instead I had figured out where I had gone wrong once I had gotten home.
Today, GPS enabled devices are much more common. But if you want a device that doesn’t rely on cell service and has a screesize that is viewable while off road while holding up to the elements.. you’ll want to take a look at GPS units by Lowrance. If you’re into boating, this name may sound familiar. Lowrance units have been used in the harsh environments of off road desert racing for many years. With new maps being released with 4 wheeling in mind, these units have had an increase in use for with the weekend wheelers and overlanders.
Through May 31, 2018 Lowrance has a Mail in Rebate on the HDS Series units with a value of up to $500. Details are shown here:
https://www.lowrance.com/contentassets/7d2566dbe8894ba99324e3d51ddd441b/ultimate-upgrade-rebate-form-extended.pdf
Also, through May 31, 2018, Lowrance has a Mail in Rebate on the Elite Ti Series units with a value of up to $100. Details are here:
www.lowrance.com/contentassets/10fdf044b7ae4832b5050f4e27190207/catch_a_great_deal_rebateform.pdf
I also, have some how to videos on YouTube shown here:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCQWaMqWMa8EpYm5AW5bv4dw
For more information on these GPS Units and map availability, visit ruggedroutes.com or feel free to contact us.
